Tribridge Connections

A Technology, Cloud Solutions & Industry Expertise Blog

Healthcare Providers are Finally Taking Cloud Technology Seriously

Jennifer Stango is the Senior Director, Health and Life Sciences, at Tribridge. Read More

Years ago, cloud technology was not a term you could use in healthcare. Hospitals, specifically, were very slow to respond positively to it. The idea of storing any PHI or HIPAA data in the cloud was not even a blip on a hospital's radar. The main focus, both in dollars and time, was spent towards Meaningful Use. Now that Meaningful Use is near complete, the healthcare market is trending towards moving their on-premise solutions to the cloud.

According to Imprivata's 2015 Desktop Virtualization Trends in Healthcare report, now in its fourth year of publication, healthcare organizations are more willing to store personal health information (PHI) or HIPAA data in the cloud than in the past. Since the 2011 publication was released, there has been an 88% increase in the adoption of desktop virtualization. In addition, Imprivata is reporting that use of cell phones and tablets will continue to drive cloud adoption higher in healthcare than we have seen in the past.

According to the Porter Research Study, almost 60% of C-level executives in healthcare organizations place a high level of importance in moving to cloud technologies. The reason is simple: healthcare organizations are seeing the value and benefits that other industries are experiencing from cloud, including increased data storage, reduced IT costs and application hosting capabilities.

Of late, healthcare organizations are also experiencing lower profits given recent regulations, reimbursement changes and billing issues. A cloud-based EHR or ERP system that has no upfront cost for hardware or software makes upgrading legacy systems more affordable and attractive than ever.

In addition, cloud-based technology can give a hospital greater economies of scale, sometimes two to 10 times the cost advantage of an on-premise solution given the reduction in hardware and IT resources.

Hospitals may continue to be slow adopters to cloud-based technologies, but not for long. Consumers continue to demand the latest and greatest technologies and real time information, especially when it comes to their well-being. Providers will either have to make a substantial investment in an on-premise solution that may become quickly outdated, or choose cloud solutions that have little upfront cost and greater flexibility to respond to growing market demands.

The choice seems pretty simple.

How is your organization responding to these growing demands and where does cloud technology fit into your strategy?